


oleander

by claudia smallman (aleenya)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-12 09:29:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22031875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aleenya/pseuds/claudia%20smallman
Summary: my tongue is a garden,and yours is too.





	oleander

For as long as I can remember

I’ve heard flowers in their words

Roses, camellias, lilies and magnolias –

My tongue is a garden,

and yours is too.

* * *

When I was five,

I heard my first oleander.

Her voice dripped sunlight

and I soaked it up;

at the time

I had no idea

just how dangerous an oleander could be.

* * *

When I was ten,

I heard it again.

A bloom of white,

a petal stained pink.

At the time,

I was surrounded by roses, camellias, lilies and magnolias – 

So, I invited him in

and he took root.

* * *

When I was fifteen,

I tasted poison

and I knew it was the oleander

flowering on my tongue.

I swallowed it down,

but where one once stood,

five more now blossomed.

At the time,

I was so distracted by my agony

that I did not notice my garden

had become overrun by weeds.

* * *

When I was twenty,

how I screamed my lungs raw

and how my flowers,

lost their color.

I tore at my mouth

with dirt-clogged nails,

but for all the blood that I drew

those damned oleanders 

I could not uproot.

At the time,

I didn’t think to water my voice

and so,

like my garden,

it withered

and died.

* * *

I used to hear flowers in their words.

Roses.

Camellias.

Lilies. 

Magnolias.

* * *

The flowers in their words are lost on me now,

for oleander is all I hear.


End file.
